Arcen's Storm

Hiccup

Arcen watched the Prickleboggle fly away, touching the right side of his face.

Before I even turned around Toothless slobbered all over me," It's good to see you too, bud," I laughed, trying in vain to push the black dragon away from me.

He stopped and stared at Arcen, cooing curiously. Arcen made a whimpering noise shifted nervously, avoiding the Night Fury's gaze. Toothless gurgled and nosed him, Arcen replied with a cooing sound similar to Toothless's and motioned to Cortona and the Prickleboggle disappearing into the horizon.

" Well, we can't fly out of here, I didn't pack an extra tail-fin and there doesn't seem to be anything to make another one around here," I said when they fell silent, Toothless grumbled and glanced at his missing prosthetic fin.

He then turned to Arcen and had what I could only assume was a full-blown conversation about me. Mid conversation Toothless picked up his roasted tail-fin and carried it over to the cloaked dragon rider.

I had a theory about Arcen being able to speak to dragons, but it sounded impossible. How can a human decipher the dragon language? How long would it take to learn?

Arcen inspected the prosthetic, Toothless flared the real one and nosed the metal spikes.

The cloaked dragon rider seemed to come to some sort of breakthrough, he nodded and gave an excited growl before heading further inland. Toothless and Cortona followed close behind, so I followed him, too.

" Where are we going," I asked?

Arcen passed the prosthetic back and pointed to Toothless's real fin.

Well, it was a better answer than I was expecting, but then again I wasn't expecting an answer at all.

We walked up a rocky cliff face, with footpaths carved into them by dragons whose teeth and claw marks were still visible. Throughout the cliff face were caves, where various species of dragon flew in and out.

" This place is amazing! All these different breeds of dragon living together in harmony," I mused in astonishment.

Arcen stopped in front of one cave, there was a small smile on his face. He didn't understand what I was saying but he knew I was in awe of the place he protects.

He seemed both nervous and proud as he stepped out of the cave entrance, allowing us inside.

There was a dusty rug in the center of the cave, a small table that looked like it washed up on shore from a shipwreck sat on top of the rug, shiny pieces of jewelry and rainbow-colored dragon scales were scattered on top of the table. Various weapons were mounted on the walls, some were even gronckle iron. Two of Viggo Grimborn's dragon hunter banners were displayed on the wall, one of them was littered with dagger marks. At the back of the cave was a bear pelt, with grass and hay tucked under it.

" You live here, don't you?"

Arcen tilted his head to the side in confusion.

Toothless and Cortona gently pulled the best looking banner off the wall and dragged it over to me.

I picked it up in wonder, " Toothless told you I needed cloth to make him fly? "

Again Arcen had no idea what I'd said.

" You never fail to amaze me, bud," I remarked, scratching the Night Fury under the chin.

There was no denying it now, Arcen could speak to dragons as fluently as I could speak to other people. He had to have lived on this island for years to learn how to speak dragon so well. I might be the first human he's had a conversation with in a long, long time.